Apple has been an industry leader in terms of innovation for years. The company’s success in marketing, sales, product, and innovation works together to create a brand that seems unparalleled by any other industry competitor. One of Apple’s most distinguishing features have been its stores and sales staff. If you have stepped into an apple store you would clearly be able to reminisce on the experience with thoughts of the minimalist store design, energetic employs adorned in blue, and the shiny customer centered interaction. It seems less like a store and more like an event. This provides customers with a unique buying experience. Apple’s stores reputation has driven significant traffic and converted many sales by wowing customers with such an innovative approach to the traditional tech store. However, there has crept in a downside with all of this innovation and success.
As popularity with the brand and traffic in the stores has grown, a trend has arisen. Reports are more common of customers being frustrated with the increasing traffic that has come with such a good selling experience. It has gotten to the point in recent years where a customer may have to wait hours to speak with an employee and get help with their issue. Due to these frustrations, apple has implemented scheduled appointments as standard in its interactions with customers during peak hours. For customers, however, this lack of attention and availability can be a frustrating scenario which complicates something personal convenient that customers have come to expect from the conglomerate. Sometimes with excellent sales and service comes growth, but this growth can grow too fast and make the selling experience less personal. This is a danger we should be weary of and one that Apple is working on to this day. Even good selling practices can be, “Too Good”. This is why we must constantly be self diagnosing our companies, sales processes, and looking for areas where we can innovate something that could become stagnant or bring a frustration to those we are selling to.
BoweryJE22
Striking a balance between providing a different buying experience and having that experience become so popular that the quality declines is difficult. Apple has had a different in-store experience than any other technology store for years. Even after they implemented the new appointment system, I am still frustrated by having to wait a longer period of time or have my sales representative helping multiple people at the same time, and I’m certain I’m not the only one. It will be interesting to see if Apple will try to make a new change or potentially split their stores between retail and customer service in the future.